The Two Percent Is Us!

Love to hate Paris By CNN

There is a tendency among the “holier-than-thou-why-should-I-care” crowd to pooh-pooh this whole Paris Hilton thing — to dismiss it as a story not worthy of anyone’s time to talk about Paris doing time, to toss the topic into the junk bin.

Yet the interest remains, as we count down to her lockdown for an expected 23 days in the L.A. pokey for violating her probation on a charge of alcohol-related reckless driving.

In fact, there’s not only interest, but passion — which led to a passionate discussion on “Showbiz Tonight” about why so many people love to hate Paris Hilton.

After we learned that Paris was claiming this whole jail thing had left her “traumatized,” we asked in our “Showbiz Tonight” Question of the Day: “Do you feel sorry for Paris?”

Not only was the result one of the biggest responses to any question we have ever asked, it was also the most lopsided we have ever received. Ninety-eight percent said “No,” they did not feel sorry for Paris. I’m guessing the 2 percent who said “Yes” — they did feel sorry for Paris — were her friends trying to stuff the ballot box so this wouldn’t be a clean sweep.

I don’t know Paris Hilton personally. I suspect that if I did get to know her, I would discover fine things about her that would dispel a lot of the pre-conceived notions surrounding her public persona. She has a true talent: the ability to nurture a lucrative career out of nothing more than her image.

Yet what she has to realize is that images and perceptions work both ways. They can be a cash cow, and they can turn you into dead meat. If you also project an image of thinking you are above the law, that the rules of common decency are a one-way street — and you don’t realize that a little humility can go a long way — then you are destined to not only learn from history but are doomed to repeat it.

Paris will no doubt cash in on this chapter of notoriety in her life as well. And people will continue to love to hate her. But no one ever sustained a career fueled by sheer negativity. Paris needs to not only get her act together, but reinvent it. If not, she’ll become a segment on a future edition of “Whatever Happened To …” And you can bet this episode will have a laugh track.

CNN

This article is more and less right and fair, but there is more to what they say. Paris is not going to reinvent herself for the haters, but for her fans. Actually, I believe she reinvented herself when she released her debut album, but notice that no one is talking about it anymore, and so people probably pretend it doesn’t exist. But that’s another story.

It’s true though, Paris has a lot to do after she ends her jail term. The only question is she willing to reinvent herself and work harder for her career?

I’ll post an article about this soon.